May 8, 1873. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTIOULTUEE AMD COTiA-jS GAj-vDENER. 



379 



shaded from the direct rays of the sun. The plants will be 

 benefited by an occasional syringing. 



STOVE. 



Tonn; seedling plants must be shaded from the snu ; as soon 

 as they are large enough pot them oil. Recently-sown seeds 

 may be shaded by a sheet or two of paper. Great care should 

 be taken in watering small seeds ; in the absence of a very fine 

 rose a brush may be dipped in water and the hand or a slip of 

 wood drawn along the bristles, so as to cause a shower of spray 

 to fall upon the seeds. Give air at all favourable opportunities. 



PITS AND FRAMES. 



Bepot Balsams, Cockscombs, Globe Amaranths, Ice plants. 

 Sensitive plants, and most tender annuals ; the soil for the pur- 

 pose should be light andrich. Cut the flowers from the Balsams 

 while the plants are small. Pot-off cuttings as soon as they are 

 rooted, and put them in a close frame for a few days, keeping 

 them shaded. Put in cuttings of Cinerarias. Pot suckers, and 

 put in cuttings of Chrysanthemums. — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OP THE LAST WEEK. 



A CHANGE of wind has brought us fine weather, but we have 

 had a very slight rainfall, so that our rain-water tanks in the 

 hothouses, though much larger than they are at many places, 

 are mostly empty ; we have been using pump water, which is 

 not good. Last year we obtained aU our supply for the fruit 

 and plant houses from the rain-water tanks. We do not see any 

 damage that has resulted to the fruit-^ree blossoms from the 

 frost, and we hope that there will yet be a full crop. 



KITCHEN GABDEN. 



Keeping the hoe at work amongst aU the crops. There are few 

 weeds, but the hoeing does good in many ways ; it exposes the 

 larvffi of insects and other enemies of our crops, which are picked 

 up by the feathered tribe. 



Asparagus. — We are cuttingexcellent shoots from young beds. 

 The Asparagus was planted rather differently from the usual 

 plan, which is to lay the ground out in 4 or 5-feet beds, with 

 alleys between. The plants are put out 9 or 12 inches apart ; 

 this is far too close to allow them to develope themselves. We 

 had the ground trenched in the usual way to the depth of 2^ feet, 

 and when the pUnts had grown a few inches they were planted 

 out iu rows 2i feet apart, allowing a distance of 18 inches from 

 each other. Managed iu this way we get a larger produce 

 of better quality from the ground. In last week's Journal Mr. 

 Keane says, "Do not cut the weak shoots." We have always 

 done so, thinking that by allowing them to remain they would 

 run away with the strength of the plant, and strong shoots 

 would not come so freely. This seems feasible, but we should 

 be glad to hear what is the practice of others. Asparagus treated 

 as it is here does not throw up many weak shoots. 



We sowed Longpod Broad Beans ; it was more for comparison, 

 as only one sort is used in the kitchen here. It has been grown 

 for more than half a century at this place ; it is the best Bean 

 I have yet seen. There are seldom more than three beans in a 

 pod ; they are very large, and of excellent flavour. 



FRUIT AND FORCING HOUSES. 



We are stiU working amongst the Vines in late houses. All 

 the shoots have been pinched and the bunches thinned to one 

 on each shoot. The bunches are very large, and there is not 

 one that is malformed in any of the houses, all the varieties 

 showing an abundant crop. The outside borders are not covered 

 in any way during the winter, unless the frost is very severe, 

 when we place a thin coating of stable manure over them. A 

 little frost is beneficial. Peaches, Nectarines, and Plums are 

 an abundant crop in the orchard house. The shoots have been 

 stopped and thinned-out. The trees are syringed thoroughly 

 with a garden engine before 8 a.m., and when the house is shut 

 up at four in the afternoon. The trees are now requiring copious 

 supplies of water at the roots, as all of them are in pots. Pears 

 have not set well, indeed they never have set freely with us ; 

 we do not know what is the cause, whether it is the construction 

 of the house, which is a large span-roof running east and west, 

 or the treatment they receive. 



The Melons are setting pretty well; the plants have been 

 trained to the trellis, the shoots pinched-back and thinned-out 

 where too thickly placed. Cucumber plants have been looked 

 over, some of the old shoots cut out and young ones trained into 

 their places. We are cutting plenty of fine fruit, and shall do so 

 from the same plants for twelve months. 



Early Peaches. — We have picked ripe fruit of excellent flavour 

 from a pot tree of Early Beatrice Peach. It was placed in the 

 Cucumber house about the second week of January. The plant 

 had been plunged out of doors up to the last week of December, 

 and it had no artificial heat whatever until it was placed in the 

 Cucumber house. A plant of Early Pavers treated iu the same 

 way will give us a dish of nice fruit next week. We merely 

 mention this to show the great value of these Peaches for pro- 

 viding a dish or two of early fruit. 



CONSERVATORY AND PLANT STOVE. 



The conservatory is now very gay with flowering plants. 

 Herbaceous Calceolarias are coming in, and are very fine this 

 year ; the cool and rather wet season last year just suited them. 

 As a rule our summers and autumns are too dry and hot for 

 them ; we cannot grow them here as we did in Fifeshire many 

 years ago, when we used to grow large bushes of named sorts. 

 We never attempt to cultivate any but seedlings now ; but we 

 miist say the strains suppUed by the seedsmen are excellent. 

 Cinerarias are at their best, as the weather has been so cool, 

 but a week of hot drying winds will sadly disfigure them. These 

 we also grow from seeds annually. 



Deutzia gracilis has been the admiration of all visitors, the 

 plants are literally sheets of snowy whiteness. They are grown 

 all the year round in pots, and we are careful with them while 

 making their gi-owth. Those forced early are kept growing 

 under glass until the middle of May, when they are turned out 

 in a sheltered position, and repotted early in June. 



In the plant stove much time has been occupied in looking 

 over plants infested with mealy bug. Six weeks ago it required 

 a searching investigation to find one in the house, now Gar- 

 denias, Ixoras, Stephanotis, tSjc, are covered with minute speci- 

 mens ; they come like this when other work is pressing. W© 

 have been repotting and rebasketing all Orchids requiring it ; 

 those in good health are let alone. There are some sorts, not 

 usually gi-own well, in perfect health with us, that have not been 

 repotted for six or seven years. Many Orchids are injured 

 through over-potting ; let the pots and baskets be small for the 

 size of the plant. We put in cuttings of Bouvardia Vreelandii 

 and B. j&sminiflora; they strike best in an ordinary hotbed 

 with a moderate bottom heat. The old plants were cut over 

 and will receive careful attention, as our stock is small ; they 

 are of great value to us all through the winter months. Eran- 

 themum pulchellum is also being propagated, it produces abun- 

 dance of its pretty blue flowers all through the winter. 



FLOWER GARDEN. 



The beds are in readiness for the bedding plants, and nearly 

 all the plants are ready for the beds. The Calceolarias, Zonal 

 Pelargoniums, and other hardy subjects will be planted out next 

 week. If the weather is favourable we invai-iably commence 

 bedding-out in the second week in May. Of course, Coleus, 

 Iresine, Altemantheras, and other tender plants come last, and 

 do not go out for two or three weeks later. We were short of 

 boxes and pit room, and many Verbenas have been planted out; 

 as previously recommended for Calceolarias. — J. Douglas. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



*,* We request that no one will write privately to any of th& 

 correspondents of the " Journal of Horticulture, Cottage 

 Gardener, and Country Gentleman." By so doing th«y 

 are subjected to unjustifiable trouble and expense. AU 

 communications should therefore be addressed solely to 

 TJie Editors of the Journal of Horticulture, dc. 111, Fleet 

 Street, London, E.G. 



Wo also request that correspondents will not mix up on th& 

 same sheet questions relating to Gardening and those on 

 Poultry and Bee subjects, if they expect to get them 

 answered promptly and conveniently, but write them or» 

 separate communications. Also never to send more than 

 two or three questions at once. 



N.B. — Many questions must remain unanswered until next 

 week. 



Carpet Flowek-bed Planting (IT. J.}. — Your plan seems very good, 

 only we would omit Sednm azoricom variegatma, and simply have Echeveria 

 Gecunda glauca as a bordering in single line ; then two or three lines of 

 Golden Feather Pyrethnim, and lill-in the centre with Iresine Lindeni, or if 

 the bed is very gmall, one of the best varieties of Altemanthera may be sub- 

 stituted for it, as the cutting-in of the Iresine always shows the use of th& 

 knife. In general we like to have one floweiing plant in each bed, and if you 

 had substituted a dwarf blue Lobeha for the Iresine or AJternanthera wo 

 should have liked it as well ; nevertheless, we are aware that at the present 

 day foliage is often preferred ; and we have ourselves planted several beds 

 during the past spring with hardy plants intended to produce a similar 

 effect to that to which you allude, using Sedums, 1-empervivums, Arabis, and 

 other plants. We have a difficulty, howeter, in Unding anything with th& 

 high colouring of Iresine Lindeni. 



Suckers from Raspberries (.V. H.). — The suckers from the base of the 

 canes which were planted a year ago and died to the ground in summer, will 

 give you strong canes this year, and we should thin them to sii or eight, 

 leaving the strongest. The canes made this year will produce fruit another 

 year, and be in every way better than any you may plant in auttunn. 



Blfe BEDDtNG Plant ihiem). — Lobelia speciosa is very showy. Imperial 

 Dwai-f Ageratum is also good and quite as showy. Blue Gem Veronica is also 

 a good light blue bedder. 



Fruit Tkees Blossoming only at the Shoot-ends {T. H' W.). — la 

 general all our hardy fruits as Apples, Peai-s. and Plums produce most fruit 

 near their extremities, the sp\u-s bearing the fruit blossoms being most 

 abundant on the wood that is two. three, or four years old, the older portion 

 of the tree becoming less fruitful, although not entirely so if pruning be 

 attended to. In all cases the wood of greater age than that alluded to, bears 



